You might think your site is just great, but, it probably sucks. Here’s why.

1. Your website has flash (or, is flash)

Using flash on your website, or as your website, might have seemed like a great idea at first. You could add music that auto-played (more on that later), animated backgrounds, menus that dance around and emit showers of sparkles as you click it. Leaving aside the horrible, horrible sparkles for a moment, there’s a larger issue at work here; there’s another reason why your site sucks as a result of using Flash. It doesn’t work on mobile devices!

Now, at this point, I expect all the Android fan boys to chime in and remind me that Flash does work on Android devices. My response? For now…

Adobe themselves recently stated that they would drop support for mobile Flash. Now, while Flash is still a decent product for other uses (fast prototyping, desktop web games, etc..) it isn’t appropriate for use as your website.

But, why do you care about mobile users? Someone who has the money to spend on a smartphone or an iPad, probably has the money to spend on your services. Just saying.

Additionally, a Flash website can’t be indexed as well by Google, so you’re losing any SEO benefits of your site. Also, not all computers have Flash! So, some people will get an error screen only asking them to install Flash–a task that can’t always be completed.

2. Your website auto-plays video, audio or some other assault on my senses

I’ve covered this before, but, when I encounter a site with music, sound, floating balloons, etc.. I leave. So does everyone else. Check out your bounce rate, I guarantee it’s through the roof high.

3. Your site doesn’t work with mobile devices

Even if you create your site in pure HTML, it still needs to render correctly on small screen devices. If you don’t test on an iPad/iPhone, you’ll never know if it works correctly.

4. Your content sucks

I’ve seen lots of bad sites. But, if I need to spend 10 minutes to find your email, I’m not going to contact you at all. If all your major content is posted via. a PDF, or if you require me to log into some other service, to view a generic document or print a coupon, I’m not going to do it.

5. Your design sucks

We all love bright colors, but if your site has a different color for every element and uses more than 3-4 fonts, I might just rip my eyeballs out of my eyes. At least remember this one rule.. Red and blue should NOT be used at the same time!

About David

David is the owner of Wolf Snap Designs. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two daughters.

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People love us!

I recently had a custom Smugmug site designed for me by David Wolf of Wolf Snap Photography. I cannot say enough about the amazing service he provided!! I would highly recommend his services to anyone seeking a custom Smugmug site design. He was quick to deliver, provided me with exactly what I wanted, and was quite reasonable in terms of price! A+++

Thumbs up to David Wolf and Wolf Snap Designs! David did a great job on my site, petebyron.com His patients, and quick to respond were key. I highly recommend him. Thanks David

Pete Byron - http://www.petebyron.com/

Wow, that was fast! Great service, too!
Last night I sent a quick e-mail to David (he provides customization services) asking for info about billing services and being able to take credit cards. I’d noticed he had a nice setup and wanted to know what he did. He responded in about 2 seconds and asked if he could call to discuss since it’d be easier to explain. Well, within an hour he had me all set up and I’m now able to send professional invoices to my clients and they can input their cc info and pay online. I appreciate the fact that he laid out several options for me and we discussed which would best suit my needs.
I can’t recommend David’s services enough. He helped me get my website set up last year and I get a lot compliments saying how nice it looks. Although I did some initial work on setting it up, I know my limitations and my time is better served having a professional working on things like that. He did a great job, especially with adding music and a customer contact page, cleaning up my galleries, etc.
Beyond the website help, he also helped me become more functional in other aspects of my business. For example, he got me set up with a better e-mail system and that’s been a huge help!
I could’ve spent the time figuring out how to do everything on my own and I’m sure I would’ve eventually figured things out, but as someone once told me, “It’s better to spend your time working ON the business than IN the business.” David’s expertise has helped me save time and stay focused on what I really want to do.
So in case you’re getting frustrated trying to do things yourself or if you think there’s things you could be doing to streamline the admin side of your business, I’d highly recommend you talk to David Wolf!
Thanks for letting me rave!

Kathleen Davenport - http://kathleendavenport.com/

Thank you to David for being SO easy to work with and for making my great new photography site and blog! I am very pleased with the results, and I am excited to share it with my family and friends.
David also set me up with the Google Apps and gave me an email address that matches my web site, so I finally look “legit!” He is so prompt, and was willing to walk me through everything when it was most convenient for me, which was huge!
I highly recommend David and Wolf Snap!

Gayle Lessmann - miss G photography

Wow! I am very impressed with …
… Dr David (aka: David Wolf).
He turned my garbled ramblings of what I thought I wanted … into exactly what I wanted!!
Having never hired anyone to do this stuff before, I was pretty worried about trust (I’d have to give him my passwords), honesty (I’d have to trust he would not do it in 2 seconds and charge me the earth) and ability (how do I know he can even do this stuff?!).
I need not have worried. David did a fantastic job .. and gave me some great advice too. If you need help with your SmugMug .. I highly recommend Dr David.
Thank you so much Dr David!!!

I highly recommend David Wolf. He had a very fast response time to by first inquiry. He was always available for help. I also had several questions that now seem a little silly but he always responded and was very nice about it. He was great to work with and I love what he has done to my site..

Just wanted to share my experience of “smugmugtization” with David (aka WolfSnap) as I recently had the opportunity to ask him to do my website : www.calydusperspective.com
Well, what I am suppose to say, except WOW on every aspect!
David is a busy man that’s for sure, but he does gets the job done! And no wonder he’s that busy, the result is just absolutely great. On top of that is one of the most patient person I’ve had to deal with, very accomodating and never complains about anything, even though I felt I was picky sometimes!
But the result is there, that’s for sure!
Thank you David for such a nice website, couldn’t have done it without you and keep up the good work!

I had David from Wolfsnap.com help me customising my SmugMug website.
It was a pleasure dealing with David and I’m super happy with the result! David really listened carefully to what I wanted regarding a simple and clean layout but also gave me some very valuable suggestions on how best to do things. I highly recommend David, very helpful and professional.

Jan Bach Kristensen - http://www.janbachkristensen.com/

Wow, I couldn’t be any happier with david’s customization…..
The custom look david gave my website is outstanding!!!!!! I highly recommend him doing your website, you won’t regrete it.
Thanks again wolfsnap.com aka drdavid

Carlos Estrada

I love SmugMug. I love the customization options but was completely overwhelmed by them. On shopping around for a website designer to do a site for a little non-profit museum, I found David Wolf listed here. After talking to him, I decided to go ahead and have him do MY personal site as well. I love the results!
He is very detail oriented, extremely easy to work with, exceedingly patient, and highly entertaining – he can make me laugh even after a really rough day! He always takes his time to talk with me and find out exactly what I want done to the site.
Go ahead – get David to customize your site. What a great way to start the new year, right? New Year, New Look!
I’m not one for lots of smilies, but David deserves a great big thumbs up!